Movie review: ‘It Chapter Two’ could use some chopping in the editing room

Ed Symkus More Content Now

Wednesday

Sep 4, 2019 at 10:32 AM

It’s been two years since the adaptation of Stephen King’s epic novel “It” was released on the big screen. And though the running time was a lengthy two and a quarter hours, the film whizzed by, telling a coming-of-age story all wrapped up in a gruesome ribbon of shudder-inducing horror. Some people are scared by clowns. All people, whether they were characters in the movie or folks watching in the audience, were afraid of the big, loud, laughing, saber-toothed clown here, going by the name of Pennywise.

But that film only told the first half of King’s book. In this sequel, the story picks up 27 years later, which is pretty much in line with what happens in the second half of the book. For the uninitiated, every 27 years, a chain of bad events - most of them centering on the murder of young children - takes place in the town of Derry, New Hampshire. The perpetrator is Pennywise, played, in both films, joyously and threateningly and hideously, by Bill Skarsgård

The first one was about the camaraderie and joining of forces between a group of seven friends in town, each of whom had a very different personality from the other. The coming-of-age part had to do with them attempting to destroy the white-faced threat that was wiping out the town’s young population. They of course vanquished the monster at the end of the film. But since it was only the halfway point of the book, and since they made a pact that if “It” ever came back, no matter where they were, they would return to Derry to do more battle ... well, it’s sequel time.

But even though the same man - Andy Muschietti - directed both films, and Gary Dauberman, who co-wrote the first, did the writing chores himself on the second, there’s something missing. Or perhaps not enough is missing. Running at 169 minutes (eight minutes longer than “Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood”), it feels like the filmmakers just didn’t want to leave anything out of the book. On top of that, the themes of friendship and bravery and getting second chances to make things right get repetitive, leaving plenty of material that would have made the film better if a chunk of it was left on the cutting room floor.

With all of that grousing out of the way, it’s only fair to point out that “Chapter Two” is brimming with terrific performances, notably from Jessica Chastain as the adult Beverly, James McAvoy as the adult Bill, and Bill Hader, tossing in a nice edge of comic timing, as the adult Richie.

On top of that, all of the kids from the original film are back for the extremely effective and well-placed flashback scenes, which not only add some great balance between the younger and older characters, but also help to show more of what made them tick when they were kids.

After the events of all those years ago, six of the seven pals left town, and eventually managed to block out most of the ordeal they went through. Only Mike stayed, and now played by Isaiah Mustafa, is the one who, when the killings begin anew, makes sure everyone else remembers the pact they made and convinces most of them to return to the place and events they forgot. Their initial return is marked by a true happiness to see each other, but things soon get dark, then creepy, then shockingly scary.

Unfortunately, there are numerous instances where the pacing starts to drag and many of the ghoulish and garish creatures take on a misplaced cartoonish quality. But there are a couple of great cameos - Peter Bogdanovich as a film director, and Stephen King as an antique dealer - and there’s a tip of the hat to John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” via both a person’s head that turns into a big spider and the line of dialogue - lifted directly from the Carpenter film’s script - that’s delivered when it appears. Credit goes to the film for the way it achieves closure to King’s story by the end, but it sure does take a long time to get there.

Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.